Several of the world’s top off-road motorcycle racers, including seven of the top eight in this year’s FIM Cross-Country World Championship, will battle across Qatar’s deserts at this week’s Sealine Cross-Country Rally, starting on Monday morning.
The FIM series runs over five rallies this year in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Sardinia, Chile and Morocco. Strong results in the five-stage event, organised by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) with the FIM, will be vital to the title hopes of defending Dakar champion Toby Price and his Dubai-based English rival Sam Sunderland.
KTM team-mates head the field
Both are invited to Sunday afternoon’s pre-event press conference at the Losail International Circuit, north of Doha, and are locked in a fascinating duel within the Red Bull-KTM Factory Team that has dominated off-road rallying, and the Dakar in particular, for many years.
Price struck first in this year’s FIM series, following his stunning January Dakar win with victory at the recent Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. The hottest property in cross-country motorcycling, the Australian knows Qatar’s deserts pose very different challenges from the dunes and baking sand of the UAE. He leads Sunderland by seven points.
Sunderland missed the Dakar through injury but returned with a vengeance to push Price all the way in Abu Dhabi. He has ridden in Qatar before, suffered a heavy fall, and knows the dangers of the navigation and the many parallel tracks and deceptive turns.
The challengers
Chile’s Pablo Quintanilla is third in the standings and ready to pounce if either KTM rider slips. On a Rockstar-backed Husqvarna 450 Rally, he was third in Abu Dhabi and at the Dakar, behind Price and Slovakia’s Stefan Svitko, even winning the final Dakar stage in Argentina.
Emirati Mohammed Al-Balooshi is the leading Arab rider and capable of a podium on his KTM 450 Rally. He is fourth in the title race, ahead of France’s Pierre Alexandre Renet and Spain’s leading woman rider Laia Sanz, entered on factory Husqvarna and KTM machines.
Two factory-supported Yamahas are entered for experienced Portuguese Helder Rodrigues and French team-mate Adrien Van Beveren. Rodrigues won the penultimate Dakar stage for Yamaha and finished fifth, with Van Beveren sixth.
With Honda’s Team HRC not competing until the Merzouga round of the Dakar Series in May, and having recently moved operations to Santa Perpetua de la Mogoda near Barcelona, the field lacks two or three professional riders. But Poland’s Jakub Piatek and Orlen Team’s Bolivian Juan Carlos Salvatierra can reach the top five on their KTMs.
Quads
Rafal Sonik has been nearly as successful on a quad at the Sealine Rally as local hero Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah in a car. The Pole has won three times in four years (2012, 2013 and 2015) and is chasing a fourth win in five seasons on his Honda TRX 700. His main rival is Chile’s Ignacio Casale on a Yamaha Raptor 700 SE.
Qatar’s hopes rest with Ahmed Fahad Al-Kuwari, seeded 28th on a KTM 450 EXC.
On Sunday competitors complete administration and scrutineering at Losail from 07.30hrs, before the pre-event press conference at 16.00hrs with QMMF President Abdulrahman Al-Mannai and LCSC chairman Saud Al-Attiyah.
FIM Cross-Country Rallies World Championship – after round 1
- 1. Toby Price (AUS) 30pts
- 2. Sam Sunderland (GBR) 23pts
- 3. Pablo Quintanilla (CHI) 20pts
- 4. Mohammed Al-Balooshi (ARE) 16pts
- 5. Pierre Alexandre Renet (FRA) 15pts